


Zebras

by chogiwonderful_you



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Explicit Sexual Content, Humor, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Slow Burn, Vampire Byun Baekhyun, Wall Sex, detective fiction, detective kyungsoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-09 01:22:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13470717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chogiwonderful_you/pseuds/chogiwonderful_you
Summary: Kyungsoo’s a rookie detective on a mission. Baekhyun’s a vampiric Uber driver with a crush. Together, they fight crime!As a new transfer to NYPD's homicide unit, Kyungsoo has enough on his plate. The last thing he needs is a total stranger forcing his way onto his case. Too bad Baekhyun never learned to take no for an answer.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fic fest, I and I'm so thrilled that I participated! I've never actually finished a fic before. Thank you so much to the mods for moderating this event and being so gracious with my continued lateness. Also thank you to my best friend for listening to me talk about not only this fic, but also all of the other fics I still have to finish.
> 
> And, finally, thank you to Prompter 193! I was captivated by your prompt immediately, and had such a great time envisioning this world. I hope you enjoy what I came up with.
> 
> All of my legal knowledge comes from Law and Order:SVU

 

 

     It was the second body they had found in as many days. At least yesterday had been warmer. Kyungsoo tugged on the lapels of his NYPD windbreaker, but it did little to ward off the sudden October chill.

     “There’s no evidence of foul play that I can see offhand.” The medical examiner stood up to address Kyungsoo and his partner. “Obviously, we won’t know for sure until I finish my examination, but it looks like a pretty clear overdose to me.” He removed his gloves and nodded to his assistants to move to zip up the bodybag. “You guys don’t need to stay. We can take it from here.”  

     “Finally,” his partner huffed out.

     CSU had left half-an-hour ago, barely able to gather any uncontaminated evidence from the busy thoroughfare of Tompkins Square Park. The only reason Kyungsoo and his partner Denton were still there was because the coroner had been held up by a bus accident uptown.

     “Hey, Do.” Denton’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “I’m meeting up with some of the guys at the 13th Step, if you want to tag along.”

     “I think I’m gonna stay here for a bit, ask around - see if anyone saw anything.”

     Denton scoffed. “Yeah, ‘cause homeless junkies love talking to the cops.”

     Kyungsoo shrugged.

     “Okay. Well, suit yourself then.”

     Kyungsoo nodded and waved him off absently.

 

     As the wind whipped past him once again, he wondered if he should have taken Denton’s offer. He didn’t know too many of the people on the homicide unit yet, and although he hated to admit it, Denton was probably right. It was unlikely that he’d find out anything worthwhile tonight - maybe even at all.

     There was just something about these two cases that didn’t sit right with him. Even though both cases had seemed like apparent drug overdoses, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but feel that there was more to the story. And maybe his captain was right when he told him it was just rookie instincts. For the most part, Kyungsoo was inclined to believe him; there was little to suggest that these had been murders. But there was something niggling at the back of his mind that told him not to give it up.

     It was the same feeling that had him putting in transfer papers to the homicide unit three months ago. Even now, he wasn’t sure why he’d done it. His former partner in the Major Case Squad had told him it was because he was an idiot with an overdeveloped savior complex, but Sehun wasn’t exactly known for being tactful. Maybe Kyungsoo had thought he could make a difference, or maybe he just liked puzzles and punishing himself.

     And, well, he was doing a great job at that last part recently. After two hours of people running at the sight of his badge interspersed with a few half-coherent interviews, he was running out of steam. It had started to drizzle and the temperature had dropped with the sun a while ago. Denton was the one who drove him to the scene, so now he was stuck walking all the way to the Astor Place six train and dealing with two transfers to get home to the Upper West Side.

     He sighed, pushing his now damp bangs up off of his forehead. Might as well take an Uber, unless he wanted it to be midnight before he got home.

     Kyungsoo closed the app and reopened his notes. Most of what he had written was completely useless - no one who had been willing to talk to him was able to give him anything resembling a firm timeline or could remember whether they had seen anyone interact with the deceased while he was still alive. The only thing that stood out to him was that no one he had talked to could remember ever having seen the dead man before.

     Even that didn’t mean much. If the victim was in fact a homeless drug addict, a certain level of transience was to be expected. But then why would he buy drugs somewhere else and then come to Tompkins Square to shoot up. No, Kyungsoo reminded himself, they hadn’t found any drug paraphernalia on the body, and it made no sense that he would get high elsewhere and come to the park to overdose.

     Captain Wu would tell him that he was reaching again - anyone could have stolen the drugs before they got to the scene, and addicts don’t exactly make reliable witnesses.

     The large black SUV pulling up to the curb in front of him was a welcome distraction from his jumbled inner monologue.

     “Kyungsoo, yeah?” The driver asked as Kyungsoo climbed into the backseat.

     “Yeah.”

     “Rough night?”

     Kyungsoo could just catch the hint of a smirk in the rearview mirror. He hummed noncommittally and looked back down at his phone.

     The driver seemed to take the hint and fiddled with the navigation on his dashboard. “84th and Amsterdam, right?”

     Kyungsoo really tried to look over his Central Park notes as they drove, but it was clear he wasn’t going to find a solution anytime soon. He locked his phone and rested his head against the window.

     The driver had the radio on low and he was singing along, soft enough that Kyungsoo could only just hear it, but loud enough that he couldn’t tune it out. He was tapping his fingers against the steering wheel in time to the music. Every so often , he seemed to run his hand through his hair, and Kyungsoo could see the bright red fluff settle back into place over the corner of the driver’s seat.

     His eyes kept being pulled back to the driver’s fingers, illuminated by the streetlights on the west side highway. They really were pretty. Something about them made every gesture he made look elegant.

Sehun would be laughing his ass off if he knew Kyungsoo was getting worked up about a stranger’s hands. Maybe he did need to get laid more.

     It didn’t make him feel less creepy when he left a five-star rating when he got home.

 

     Denton shoved the autopsy report into Kyungsoo’s hands before he’d even taken his first sip of coffee. “You were all gassed up about it last night. Thought you’d want to see it right away.”

Kyungsoo tried to look less eager than he felt as he flipped through the file. On the surface, the findings did seem to indicate an overdose, but, then again….There it was.

     “Denton, did you read this?”

     “Sure.” Denton didn’t look up from his computer. “Typical OD.”

     Kyungsoo didn’t want to waste anymore time trying to convince Denton. “I’m gonna go talk to the captain.”

     “Do what you want, man.”

     Kyungsoo barely heard him as he rushed toward Captain Wu’s office and rapped on the door.

     Captain Kris Wu had intimidated Kyungsoo when he had transferred to homicide, with his deep voice, steely glare, and giant’s stature, but that impression had faded fairly quickly after he saw him trip over nothing and spill an entire cup of coffee down his front.

     Wu smiled a gummy and incredibly dorky smile as he ushered Kyungsoo into his office.

     “We got the autopsy report back from last night’s John Doe from Tompkins Square.” Kyungsoo handed Wu the file, but Wu didn’t open it.

     “Denton showed me earlier. It’s pretty much exactly what it looked like.”

     “But, Captain, look - “ He motioned for Wu to give him back the file and opened to show him what had caught his attention before. “There was no evidence of drugs in his blood panel.”

     “There are plenty of drugs that don’t show up in a tox-”

     “And, look at this. His organs showed no signs of long term damage one would expect from an addict. The cause of death is cardiac arrest, but the medical examiner said the heart looked healthy overall.”

     “That still doesn’t indicate homicide.”

     “And the man from Central Park had almost the same report-”

     “Kyungsoo.” Wu laid a hand on Kyungsoo’s, and Kyungsoo realized that he was gripping the folder so tightly that it was starting to tear. “Can we talk for a minute?”

     Kyungsoo knew it wasn’t really a question. He sat down when Wu motioned him to.

     “Kyungsoo, you’re a good detective, and I really appreciate your enthusiasm. But, well, shit, I don’t mean to sound patronizing, but I’ve been on the job for a long time, and sometimes people just die?” He sighed and leaned back in his chair, running his hand through his hair as though hoping it would give him the right words. “And it really sucks because it would be easier if there were some kind of conspiracy ‘cause then you could fix it. I really do think you’re gonna make a great addition to homicide, Kyungsoo, but there’s a bit of an adjustment. Listen, why don’t you take the rest of the day off - clear your head. I see your face around here too often.” Wu offered him another smile.

     Kyungsoo excused himself from Wu’s office. He made sure Denton didn’t see him slip the autopsy report into his bag before he left.

 


	2. Chapter 2

     To be fair, Kyungsoo honestly did try to follow Captain Wu’s suggestion. He managed to get a full twenty minutes into the latest Game of Thrones episode before he was taking his work laptop out of his briefcase.

     He had picked up a weird habit at the Police Academy of listening to police scanner recordings. At first he had used them to help memorize the various codes and call signals officers used to communicate in order to pass his exam, but later found that it helped him concentrate when he was studying and later, when writing reports. 

     The file he was listening to now was the one from the morning that homicide had investigated the first body in Central Park. He was hoping that maybe hearing it come in over the radio would help him remember something, or give him some kind of lead. He had just come into the station to start his shift when they got the dispatch, so he hadn’t heard the call out directly. 

     The scanner, unfortunately, did not give him the information he needed. The call out was completely straight forward. Just a beat cop who had discovered the body calling for the homicide unit. What was interesting was the call right after it. It was a 10-31, typical robbery, but the interesting part was the address - the Metropolitan Museum, less than five blocks from where the body had been found. It was a case he would have picked up himself if he were still on the Major Case Squad. There was something about the close timing of the two cases that made him want to investigate further.

     He opened up the case database on his computer to search for any more information, but he paused before he could type the details into the search bar. If he looked at the case, he would need to log in his credentials, which would mean there would be a record of his having done so. Not that he thought anyone would notice, but he was possibly on thin ice with Captain Wu at the moment, and he didn’t want to do anything that could jeopardize his position on the homicide squad. 

     Luckily, he still had a contact on the Major Case Squad, and he was willing to call in a favor.

     “Major Case Squad - Detective Oh speaking.”

     “Hey, Sehun. It’s me.”

     Sehun’s professional tone dropped instantaneously. “Kyungsoo! What’s up, man? Anyone interesting die today?”

     Kyungsoo snorted. “As tactful as ever.”

     “Whatever gets me through the day.”

     Kyungsoo heard the rustle of paper and the sound of a chair pushing in. Sehun’s muffled voice came through the line: “Yeah, no, I have to take this.” Then a thumping noise that was likely a door closing.

     “Okay, so what’s up? You didn’t call my cell so I’m guessing this is work-related.”

     “It is. I'm wondering if you can get me the report on the Met robbery from the other night.”

     “Oh, yeah, you heard about that? I already submitted my report on that - my new partner’s almost as much of a hardass as you - should be in the database by now.”

     Kyungsoo decided just to bite the bullet and be direct. “I’m kind of hoping you could just send me the file...you know, without using the database?”

     Sehun huffed out a laugh.”So, how much trouble are you gonna get me into? Not saying I won’t do it, but…”

     “Hopefully none! I mean, it’s not like Captain Wu told me not to look into this case specifically.”

     “Uh huh.” Sehun hummed under his breath. “Alright, but you’re gonna owe me a favor. 

     Kyungsoo barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes, even if Sehun couldn’t see him. Sehun thought bringing you coffee one time was worth calling in a favor on later. He couldn’t imagine what he’d ask for for something like this. “Don’t you still owe me for all that quarterly paperwork I did for you?”

     “Technically, I didn’t ask you to do that.”

     “No, you just pouted and whined about how much trouble you were gonna be in until I agreed to help.”

     “Exactly. No asking involved.”

     Kyungsoo could practically hear the infuriating smirk on Sehun’s face. He sighed. “Fine. What do you want?”

     “Drinks.” Sehun paused for dramatic effect. “At the Standard.”

     “Are you trying to torture me?”

     “Do you want the report or not?”

     There were many times when Kyungsoo regretted becoming best friends with Oh Sehun, but never as much as when he was forced to go to that stupid hotel bar full of old white men with Asian twink fetishes. 

     “I thought you already had a sugar daddy.”

     “Do you know how annoying it is to fake an accent? I’m never doing that again.”

     “You know you could date people who are actually interested in you, right?”

     “Louis Vuitton doesn’t pay for itself, ‘Soo. So...you’ll go with me?”

     Sehun sounded so hopeful - he was probably even making those ridiculous puppy dogs eyes too - Kyungsoo didn’t have the heart to crush it.

     “Yeah, yeah, okay. I’m free next weekend.”

     “Great. I gotta get going; Kim’s gonna break down the door if I take any longer. I’ll send the file right over. Later, ‘Soo!”

 

     The email notification pinged only a few minutes later, and Kyungsoo was grateful to see that Sehun had sent the report from his personal account. 

     A quick perusal confirmed what Kyungsoo had already suspected; the museum reported a twenty minute camera blackout in their Egyptian wing roughly an hour before the coroner had determined TOD for the body in Central Park. The details were fairly scant: only one artifact was stolen, and there was no sign of forced entry on either the case or the museum in general. All signs pointed to an inside job, but there wasn’t a mention of a suspect. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was his only lead thus far. 

     An hour later, he had set up a meeting with the Met contact on file - a Dr. Zhang Yixing - with only a minimal amount of truth-stretching.

 

     The lobby of the Met was almost completely devoid of people when Kyungsoo arrived. Kyungsoo brushed past the few stragglers and flashed his badge at the security guard.

     “Detective Do,” a lilting voice called from across the hall, beckoning him over.

     “Dr. Zhang?” Kyungsoo asked as he approached.

     The man before Kyungsoo has an easy smile and a dimple that deepened as he did so. “Please. Call me Yixing. If you wouldn’t mind following me back to the office? I’d just rather we talk about this privately.” His eyes flicked toward the group of tourists still taking pictures by the front entrance.

     “Of course. Lead the way.”

     Yixing took Kyungsoo through a staff only door off of the Egyptian Wing and into a tiny cluttered office at the end of the hall.

     “Sorry about this,” Yixing said sheepishly, hurriedly picking up an open crate from the chair in front of his desk. “We just got a few things in. Haven’t had a chance to sort everything out yet.”

     After a bit more bustling to move stacks of papers and binders from his desk, Yixing indicated for Kyungsoo to sit and took a seat behind his desk himself.

     “Not to sound rude,” Yixing began, “but I’m not exactly sure what more I can do for you, detective. Unless there has been a development in the case?”

     Well, crap. Kyungsoo didn’t know why he had even trusted Sehun’s report to be thorough in the first place; documentation was never his strong suit.

     “Not as such,” Kyungsoo hedged, hoping he could get Yixing to open up a bit more without making him suspicious. “We’ve hit a bit of a dead end.”

     “I wish I could tell you more. Your partner seemed convinced that Mr. Vargas was the prime suspect.”

     Kyungsoo made a mental not to find out from Sehun who this ‘Mr. Vargas’ was. “Right. Of course.” There had been no mention of an arrest or interview in the report, and he was fairly sure that Sehun would have at least remembered to include that. Hoping that he was making the right call, he said, “We’re having a bit of trouble tracking him down. I thought that maybe if we knew more about what was stolen, we could track that, and find him that way.”

     To be honest, Kyungsoo wasn’t sure how learning about an Egyptian artifact was going to help him solve his murder case, but at this point, he’d take finding this Vargas over nothing.

     “Ah!” Yixing pushed back his chair quickly and grabbed one of the binders that was precariously stacked on his desk. “That, I can help you with.” He huffed a small laugh. “Although I doubt you’ll be able to track him through normal art fencing circles. He’s clearly far from an expert.”

     “What do you mean?”

     Yixing opened the binder and handed it to Kyungsoo. The photos showed a small piece of stone with what appeared to be a chunk of amber fused on top of it. “There were a dozen other things in the same display worth ten times what this artifact is. Frankly, besides being uncovered in an ancient burial site, it seems to have little value at all. There’s no function or significance to it anyone can determine, and, obviously, it certainly wasn’t made for it’s artistic merit. If anything, it looks like the first smithing attempt of a child.” Yixing smiled at his own joke.

     “So there would be few people interested in purchasing it, then?”

     “Unless he found a scholar of fifth dynasty antiquities, I doubt it. And even then...Well, you aren’t the only one who specializes in mysteries, Detective Do.”

     Kyungsoo was certain he must have imagined the wink. “Right. Well, then, do you mind if I borrow this?” He held up the binder. “It may help.”

     “By all means. I really do appreciate your diligence in this matter.”

     Yixing showed Kyungsoo out of the now-closed museum with a promise to call again if there was anything else he could think of. As he waited for his Uber, he flipped through the binder again. At the very least, he might have something to pass on to Sehun to help with his case.

     “Your driver, Baekhyun, has arrived.” His cell phone pinged as a black SUV pulled up to the curb at the bottom of the Met steps. 

     “We meet again, Kyungsoo,” his driver said as Kyungsoo climbed into the back seat.

      Kyungsoo turned his head sharply to face him; it was the same red-haired driver from the night before, and he was wearing a mischievous grin.

     “Sorry. That was creepy. I just couldn’t resist.” His smile showed off two sharp little canines. It was oddly adorable.

     Kyungsoo stared openly at him in disbelief.

     “So, you see any good art tonight? Besides me that is.” Baekhyun laughed as he pulled out into the street.

     “Not really.”

     “Not the chatty type, huh?”

     Kyungsoo didn’t respond. Mercifully, Baekhyun turned up the radio and started humming along, seemingly content to continue the drive without conversation.

     After a few moments of deliberation, Kyungsoo pulled out his phone and called Sehun.

     “You suck at reports,” he said when Sehun finally picked up.

     “Hello to you too, ‘Soo. You could have texted me, you know.”

     “Texts are easier to track.”

     “Wow, you really are paranoid about all this. So, what’s up now?”

     “Who’s Vargas?”

     “Honestly, we don’t know. He was a janitor at the Met. Using a fake identity though. It was a good one too, with a duped social and everything. It’s gonna be a bitch to track even while working with the feds. But the art theft world isn’t that big. Hopefully, we can catch him before he leaves the country.”

     “I wouldn’t count on that,” Kyungsoo said, “Yixing said that the piece he stole is practically worthless; most art fences probably won’t touch it.”

     “Well, damn. There goes that lead. You get anything that helps you out?”

     Kyungsoo sighed and looked out the window at the passing buildings. “No. I’m not sure I’m going to either.” He was starting to feel stupid for having spent so much time and energy on something that was clearly a rookie hunch.

     “Sucks, dude.” Sehun paused, and Kyungsoo was about to hang up when he spoke again. “So, ‘Yixing’, huh?”

     “He asked me to call him that.”

     “I bet he did.”

     Kyungsoo really didn’t have the capacity to deal with Sehun’s teasing right now. “Can you just, like, not?”

     “No shame in it, man. He was hot.”

     Kyungsoo didn’t respond.

     “Anyways, if you need anyone to drown your sorrows with, I’m sure Yixing will be happy to join you.” Sehun cackled before hanging up.

     Kyungsoo smacked his head against the glass of the window and wondered why he had been cursed with such an annoying best friend.

     He heard a snort from the front seat and looked up to see Baekhyun raising an eyebrow at him in the rearview mirror. Kyungsoo got out of the car without saying goodbye.


	3. Chapter 3

     A few days later found Kyungsoo in his apartment trying to type up a report while half-heartedly watching Jeopardy. He was hoping he’d be more productive once his Thai food arrived.

     As if on cue, his buzzer rang, and Kyungsoo jumped over the back of his couch and slid across the floor on his socks to the door to hit the button. He heard the elevator ding as it reached his floor and he unlocked his door, opened it, and saw - 

     “So I found your janitor,” Baekhyun said, standing in Kyungsoo’s doorway like it was a totally normal thing to do.

     “What?” Kyungsoo said eloquently. Did he deliver Thai food too? He wasn’t carrying a bag. Why wasn’t Kyungsoo shutting the door in his face?

     “The janitor? In your robbery case?” Baekhyun looked at him like he was an idiot. “Are you gonna just stand there or are you gonna let me in?”

     Kyungsoo was to gobsmacked to respond. Baekhyun huffed and pushed past him with surprising strength and started making himself at home in Kyungsoo’s kitchen.

     “Why are you -“ he spluttered. “You need to leave.” As the shock faded, Kyungsoo felt himself getting angry. “I’m a cop and you’re breaking about, some ridiculous number of privacy laws, not to mention trespassing.”

     Baekhyun seemed unfazed, leaning back against the counter with his arms crossed.

     “I have a gun, you know. I’m gonna call for backup, and you had better be gone by the time they get here.” Of course, he had to be a responsible gun owner and have his gun unloaded and locked up in his bedroom. And his cell phone was shoved into the couch. There was no way he could reach it without alerting Baekhyun.

     Baekhyun was literally smiling. Smiling. “So...you don’t want to know then?”

     “How do you even know about that?” Kyungsoo asked before he could stop him himself. He told himself he was stalling as he shuffled backwards toward the couch.

     “I heard your phone conversation and then I followed up with Yixing.”

     Had Sehun really been that loud? The radio had been loud enough to muffle him, surely.

     “Are you stalking me or something? Did you hack my phone?”

     Baekhyun sighed and scrubbed his hand through his bright red hair, fluffing it up in all directions. “So I didn’t want to have to do this, but I might as well get this out of the way - I’m a vampire.”

     Kyungsoo stared at him for what felt like an eternity but was probably less than a minute. Then he burst out laughing. He doubled over and gasped, on the verge of complete hysteria. Because this was it. This was how he did. He was going to be killed a beautiful fucking crazy person who thought they were a vampire while his gun was locked up, totally useless.

     “I can prove it, you know.”

     Kyungsoo looked up and saw that Baekhyun was literally pouting. His stomach was starting to hurt from laughing.

     Baekhyun huffed and stomped over to where Kyungsoo was leaning against the back of the couch. “Look.” He pointed to his mouth at the sharp eye teeth Kyungsoo had noticed before.

     “Oh, my god, you’re showing me fangs? Oh my god, I can’t.”

     “Well, how else would I have heard your conversation? Heightened senses.” Baekhyun was practically whining, which might have been cute if it weren’t so ridiculous. 

     “Okay, I didn’t want to have to do this - you can’t get mad, okay?”

     And this was it; this was where he got gummed to death by a lunatic.

     But Baekhyun didn’t lunge, he looked down at Kyungsoo with slight height advantage and tilted his head slightly to the left.

     Kyungsoo felt his hand twitch and start to lift on its own, until, all of a sudden, it flew up and smacked himself in the face.

     “What the fuck?” Kyungsoo yelled. He scrambled back, falling over the back of the couch.

     “You said you wouldn’t get mad.”

     Kyungsoo kept staring up at the ceiling. “No, I did not.”

     Baekhyun leaned forward over the back of the couch to look down at him. “So, vampire.” He smiled as though proud of completely blowing Kyungsoo’s mind.

     “The fuck is even happening?” Kyungsoo groaned. He sat up, and Baekhyun took that as an invitation to gracefully leap over the back of the couch and join him.

     “Well, I, gracious citizen that I am, am helping the NYPD by doing your job.”

     Kyungsoo glared at him. “Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?”

     “Well, I certainly pissed off the grande olde vampire counsel by skipping a few soirees, but I suppose I have my charm to fall back on.” Baekhyun laughed. “I drive for Uber, dude, this is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me all month."

     “So tell me what you found, then.” 

     Baekhyun grinned, sitting up straighter. “Okay, so: like your friend Sehun and the delightful Dr. Zhang both thought, Juan Vargas is a fake identity, but I tracked him to a very real David Gutierrez who lives in Ditmas Park.”

     “How on earth did you manage that? A fake good enough to fool the Met isn’t gonna crack from a few days of internet searching.”

     “Yeah, well.” Baekhyun shifted uncomfortably. “Can I just say ‘vampire shit’ and leave it at that?”

     “Yeah, no.”

     “Ugh, fine. But you can’t arrest me or anything, yeah?”

     Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow but motioned for Baekhyun to continue.

     “So, like, first of all, I got crazy lucky. I may have persuaded Yixing to let me see the crime scene again.”

     “Persuaded?” Kyungsoo had a pretty good idea of what he meant. And wasn’t that just insane how blasé he was acting about literal mind control.

     “Yeah, well. I was much gentler with him. Anyhow, your thief cut himself on the inside of the case. Not enough that your techs would have noticed it, but, you know, vampire: blood’s kind of my thing.

     “And then I may have gone to the precinct, ‘persuaded’ my way in, and, uh, smelled a bunch of blood samples until I found a match,” he mumbled quickly, breaking eye contact.

     “You found him...by smelling blood?”

     “I mean it was a bit more scientific, like I had a method...and I smelled a lot of blood.”

     Kyungsoo snorted.

     Baekhyun stood up suddenly and offered Kyungsoo a hand to stand as well. “Anyhow, I have the janitor’s address programmed into my GPS. Wanna go meet him?”

     And against literally every sane bone in his body, Kyungsoo decided to let his curiosity get the better of him. He grabbed his keys and his badge and slid his feet into his sneakers. “Okay. I’m gonna be mad if you kill me though.”

     “As fun as that might be, you’re far too pretty to kill.”

     Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. Vampire or not, Baekhyun might be the death of him yet.


	4. Chapter 4

     “So, ask me anything you want,” Baekhyun said as Kyungsoo buckled his seatbelt. 

     “About what?”

     “About vampire shit. Come on, dude. Aren’t you curious?”

     “Not. particularly.” Kyungsoo shrugged.

     Baekhyun huffed and pouted. His lips were surprisingly pink. Kyungsoo looked away before Baekhyun could catch him staring.

     “Okay,” he started again, “why Uber?”

     “Seriously? That’s what you want to know?”

     “I’m curious.”

     “I have a car. I have bills. I can’t go out during the day. Seems pretty simple to me.”

     “You have bills?”

     “That shit doesn’t go away when you join the undead. You know I was joking about all that vampire secret society shit, right? Immortality’s basically all the same shit, but you get to stay hot.”

     “And you drink some unsuspecting person’s blood,” Kyungsoo added.

     “Well, yeah. It’s not like I love that. But sure, driving Uber makes that easier too.”

     “Don’t you feel guilty about it?”

     “I mean, I have to eat.” Baekhyun was pointedly ignoring Kyungsoo’s gaze. “But, like, I try not to be a dick about it.”

     “So, if you turned someone, would you even know? You just bite them and dump them at home?”

     “I sure as fuck would know.” Baekhyun’s voice had suddenly gone hard, lower than Kyungsoo has thought it could.He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Kyungsoo wondered if he knew how obvious his tells were. “Sorry; it’s not like you would know. I don’t even know how most of this vampire lore shit got started, but turning people...it doesn’t work like that. You can’t turn someone from a bite alone. I only take what I need, okay? Besides I can make it so they don’t remember, so, no harm no foul, yeah?”

     Kyungsoo didn’t know that he agreed with that, but then again he was pretty new to the whole supernatural ethics thing. He wasn’t sure if he would take such a hard line if he were in Baekhyun’s position. Besides, he didn’t think arguing with him was going to get him anywhere anyways.

     “So, if you didn’t get turned by a bite, then how did you turn?” Kyungsoo asked as Baekhyun turned onto the Brooklyn Bridge.

     “Now, you’re asking the fun questions.” Baekhyun smirked. “For me, specifically, I went home with the wrong guy.”

     “That’s not exactly what I meant.”

     “The actual story’s not that exciting. Vampire seduced me, took me home, drained me, and I wake up alone and very confused.” His tone was flippant. “Let me tell you, it’s not as glamorous as Twilight makes it look.”

     “So, your… sire?”

     Baekhyun barked out a laugh at the word. “Yeah, dude, literally no vampire I’ve ever met calls them that. Not that I’ve met many. But, damn, that shit’s too funny.”

     Kyungsoo ignored him and pressed on. “So, the guy that changed you, you ever ask him why he did it?”

     “Well, I never saw him again, so… But I’m guess he didn’t mean to. You don’t really choose to turn someone, you just kill someone, and most of the time they stay dead, but, you, super rarely, this happens.” He dramatically waved his hand down his body. “Anybody who’s gonna do that - they’re not exactly the warm and nurturing type, you know?”

     “You don’t sound that cut up about it,” Kyungsoo ventured.

     “It is what it is. Got to try to make the best of it.” Baekhyun smiled, and Kyungsoo was surprised to see that it seemed genuine.

     “I guess time can do that for you. So, what’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?”

     “Um,” Baekhyun fiddled with the phone’s GPS as he thought. “I saw the moon landing on TV? That was pretty awesome.”

     “The moon landing, seriously? Out of everything?”

     “How old do you think I am, dude? You know what, don’t answer that. I’m only sixty-six.”

     “Oh,” Kyungsoo said. That wasn’t as exciting as he’d hoped.

     “Don’t sound so disappointed!” Baekhyun laughed. The GPS pinged from the dashboard. “We’ll be there in five. Get your questions out now.”

     Kyungsoo was mildly irritated with himself to find that he did actually want to know more. A tiny part of him hated giving Baekhyun the satisfaction of his interest. The vampire was still smirking. He was way too smug as it was.

     “Oh, come one, Kyungsoo, you’re not even the least bit interested?”

     Was it Kyungsoo’s imagination or did his voice drop at that last word. From the sultry look Baekhyun was throwing him, he was guess that it wasn’t just in his head. There was no way he was going to flirt with this infuriating man.

     “You can control people’s minds - ”

     “I mean, you make it sound way cooler than it actually is. Mostly I can make people highly suggestible for like ten to fifteen minutes. What I did to you is about the extent of actual mind control. I get about ten seconds on that. It’s not like I’ve got a mansion full of enthralled humans or something.”

     “What else can you do then?”

     “Well, there’s the obvious enhanced strength. I don’t need to sleep, but I still can. Oh! I can breathe underwater, cause I don’t need to breathe at all. I save a ton of money on groceries. Immortality’s a pretty decent bonus.” Baekhyun stopped talking to parallel park the car in front of what Kyungsoo assumed to be Gutierrez’s building.

     Kyungsoo unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door.  “So, strength and mind shit to control your victims, attractiveness to lure them in - ”

     “Attractiveness?” Baekhyun leaned over to invade Kyungsoo’s space. “Are you saying I’m pretty?”

     “No, I’m not,” Kyungsoo said firmly, getting out of the car to avoid Baekhyun’s smug grin.

     “You think I’m pretty; admit it.” How on earth had he gotten around the front of the car so quickly? “Kyungsoo thinks I’m pretty~”

     Kyungsoo clapped a hand over Baekhyun’s mouth. “You’re gonna wake up the whole block.”

     When he pulled his hand away, Baekhyun was still smirking down at him. “Admit you think I’m pretty first. Otherwise I won’t tell you which building we need to go to.”

     Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Are you serious?”

     Baekhyun knew he was hot, obviously. He didn’t Kyungsoo to confirm that. Those stupidly tight jeans alone told Kyungsoo that confidence was not something he lacked. “Fine. You are conventionally attractive, I suppose.”

     Baekhyun raised an eyebrow skeptically.

     “Ugh, yes, Baekhyun, I think you’re pretty.”

     Baekhyun’s brown eyes sparkled in the glow of the streetlight. “I am, aren’t I? And just so you know, this is all natural.” He flounced up toward one of the buildings on the block, clearly emphasizing his assets.

     This was quickly shaping up to be the weirdest night of Kyungsoo’s life.


	5. Chapter 5

     “Okay, you’re a cop. Get us in,” Baekhyun said as they stood on the front stoop.

     “That’s not how this works. I can’t just break and enter cause I’m NYPD.”

     Baekhyun started pressing the buzzers for every apartment.

     “What the hell are you doing?” The last thing Kyungsoo needed was for someone to call the cops on them. He doubted Captain Wu would take that very well.

     “Getting us in, obviously.”

     "Nobody’s gonna just let some complete stranger into their building in the middle of the night.”

     Baekhyun raised an eyebrow, and Kyungsoo fell sufficiently embarrassed.

     “I thought you were Thai food,” he mumbled. 

     The door buzzed and unlocked two minutes later.

     After climbing up a poorly lit and dirty stairwell, they found themselves standing outside of apartment 4B.

     “I could break down the door,” Baekhyun suggested.

     “Why would you even - You know what, nevermind, I’m just gonna knock.”

     Kyungsoo knocked and waited for a response. When none was forthcoming, he knocked again.

     There was a loud banging and then a curse as someone seemed to stumble across the apartment. “The fuck you want?” A scruffy man asked as he opened the door, keeping the chain latched in place.

     “I’m Detective Do with the NYPD. I wanted to ask you some questions.” He pulled his badge out of his sweatpant pockets to show the man.

     “It’s three in fucking morning. And you sure don’t look like a cop.” He eye Kyungsoo’s disheveled appearance warily.

     The man went to shut the door, but Baekhyun gripped the side firmly in his hand. The man’s eyes widened as he realized it wouldn’t budge.

     “We know about the robbery, Mr. Gutierrez...or should I say, Mr. Vargas,” Baekhyun pronounced dramatically.

     Gutierrez tried to wrench the door closed one more time. The he sighed and unlocked the chain. “You might as well come in, then. If you’re not gonna leave.”

     Kyungsoo and Baekhyun followed Gutierrez into the apartment. The place was definitely lived in and in desperate need of scouring. Gutierrez slumped down on the ratty couch and scrubbed a hand over his face. “So, you really a cop?” he asked.

     “I am,” Kyungsoo said, holding up the badge that was still in his hand.

     “I’m not,” Baekhyun chimed in, “but I’m deputized.”

     “He’s not deputized.”

     “Look.” Baekhyun ignored him. “We have enough evidence to arrest you right now.” They didn’t, not to mention that they didn’t have a warrant. “But if you give us the artifact, we can cut you a deal.”

     “That’s not how any of this works,” Kyungsoo hissed. “I can’t just - ”

     Gutierrez was looking at them with increasing suspicion. Kyungsoo sighed and relented.

     “If you tell me what you know, I can talk to the ADA and see what she can do.”

     “Okay.” Gutierrez nodded to himself. “Okay, yeah, I can do that.” He stood up and started to pace in quick steps that were hampered by the coffee table covered in old beer bottles. “So, first of all, I don’t have it anymore.”

     “I’m just gonna go check on that,” Baekhyun whispered, disappearing down the hallway to the rest of the apartment before Kyungsoo could stop him. Baekhyun didn’t even know what the artifact looked like, but maybe he was just nosy.

     Gutierrez started talking again, pulling Kyungsoo’s attention away from the sounds of Baekhyun rummaging through the bathroom, “I’m not going down for him, that’s for sure. He told me that ID was untrackable. Fucking lied to me.”

     “Let’s back up for a minute,” Kyungsoo interrupted. “Who’s ‘him’?”

     Gutierrez took a deep breath. “Okay. So a couple weeks back I get contacted by this guy. Really rich, fancy type. Won’t give me his name. Says he knows my brother’s lawyer from school. My brother’s doing a nickel in Sing Sing. Heard from him that I’m in the same line of work. So, he’s got this job, paying fifty Gs for me to pose as a janitor at the Met. Steal a rock and drop it off to him. He’s got the fakes and the plans, so it seems like an easy job, right?

     “So, I do the job - goes off like a dream. I meet up with him in the park after and he’s just fucking nuts, dude. Coughing like he’s about to drop dead and telling me that I’m helping him fulfill his destiny. I took the money and hightailed it out of there. The money was all there though.”

     “A murder was committed about five blocks from the museum right around that time-” 

     “Shit. I don’t know anything about that. I’m not about to get mixed up in that shit. But I wouldn’t put it past that guy. He gave me the creeps.”

     Kyungsoo was mildly encouraged by the possibility of being able to pursue the murder case, but knew better than to take Gutierrez at his word. Either way, finding this mysterious benefactor was going to be a top priority.

     “You never learned his name, or where he worked?” he asked, looking for anything he could use to identify the other man. He assumed that any communication was done through burner cells.

     “Nah, but I saw his face. I’m good with faces.”

     “Would you be willing to give a description to a sketch artist? If you came in willingly, it would go a long way toward me getting you a deal.”

     “Well, fuck, if you already found me once, it’s not like I could probably get away again.” Gutierrez sighed and sank down on his couch once more. “Yeah, I’ll come in. Let’s get this shit over with.”

     A few minutes later, Kyungsoo had reached an agreement to pick up Gutierrez the following morning to take him to the station and meet with the sketch artist and dragged a protesting Baekhyun out of the apartment and back to his car.

     “We can’t come back in the morning, dummy.”

     “Maybe you can’t, but I can.” Kyungsoo explained further as they started to drive away, “Guys like Gutierrez get skittish if you leave them on their own too long.”

     The car fell silent for a few minutes.

     “You shouldn’t go back alone,” Baekhyun said.

     “Aw,” Kyungsoo teased. “Are you worried about me, Baekhyun?”

     “My bad; I forgot that investigating a murder is super safe.” Baekhyun rolled his eyes, but his fingers seemed to grip the steering wheel tighter.

     “I wasn’t really gonna go alone.” In point of fact, that was absolutely his original plan, but seeing Baekhyun so concerned made him feel...bad? He had barely know the man for five hours; his pouting should not have this kind of effect on him. “I’ll call in my old partner. This is mostly his case anyways.”

     Kyungsoo fished around in his pockets for his phone before realizing it was still in the couch at his apartment.

     “There’s something off about all this,” Baekhyun said, although it seemed like it was mostly for his own benefit.

     Kyungsoo tried to lighten the mood. “Your vampire senses tell you that?”

     “You don’t need vampire senses to know when something fucky is going down.”

     As they pulled up to Kyungsoo’s apartment building, Baekhyun turned to him with that stupid flirty smirk of his. “Try not to get yourself killed. I’d be disappointed if you died.”

     “Good night, Baekhyun.”

     “Text me everything that happens!” Baekhyun called to him as he unlocked his front door.

     As he collapsed into his bed and texted Sehun, he realized that he had six missed calls from the Thai restaurant and that he was starving.


	6. Chapter 6

     Kyungsoo woke up to three texts. The first two were from Sehun. One said, “I hate you”, and the second said, “I’ll be there.” The other text was from an unknown number that read, “I realized that you didn’t have my number.” There was an image attached.

     Baekhyun was leaning back on his bed, his red hair fanned out over his pillow. He was clearly shirtless, the bottom of the selfie exposing delicate collarbones.

     Kyungsoo stared at the picture for longer than he would like to admit, but he blamed that on being exhausted. “Nobody wants to see that,” he fired back as he got out of bed to start getting dressed.

 

     Sehun was waiting on the stoop of Gutierrez’s building when Kyungsoo arrived.

     “Care to let me in on what’s going on?”

     In his exhaustion last night, Kyungsoo had only managed to send Sehun the address and meeting time. “I’m touched you trusted me enough to show up anyways.”

     “I trust you enough to know I’d kill you if this wasn’t important.”

     Well, that was a fair point. “I found Juan Vargas.”

     “Wait, shit. Seriously? How did you manage that?”

     “Um.” Kyungsoo shifted uncomfortably. Obviously he couldn’t say ‘my vampire Uber driver’. “Let’s call him a confidential informant.”

     Sehun’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t press any further.

     Kyungsoo pressed the buzzer for 4B and waited. He didn’t hear the corresponding buzz from the front door, but maybe Gutierrez was still sleeping. It had been a late night. He pressed the buzzer again but still go no response.

     “He knew I was coming,” Kyungsoo tried to assuage Sehun.

     “Maybe he spooked.”

     It was definitely a possibility. Last night he had seemed resigned and willing to cooperate, but maybe he had freaked out after he and Baekhyun had left and tried to make a run for it. 

     Kyungsoo pressed every button on the buzzer box.

     “Seriously?” Sehun asked.

     The front door buzzed and unlocked. He had to hand it to Baekhyun; it was a pretty effective method.

     “Come on.” He ushered Sehun inside. “Let’s go see if he hasn’t managed to clear out yet.”

     Whey they knocked on Gutierrez’s door again there was no response and no sound of movement coming from the apartment. He thought back to Baekhyun declaring “something fucky” was going down, and honestly, Kyungsoo thought he may have been right. There was definitely something off about this whole thing.

     After knocking one more time, Kyungsoo gave into impulse and reached for the door handle. His stomach dropped when he realized it was unlocked.

     “Think we could call this exigent circumstances?” he asked.

     “I will if you will,” Sehun agreed.

     Kyungsoo’s suspicions were immediately confirmed as they entered the apartment. Gutierrez was sprawled awkwardly over the couch, the position too unnatural to be mistaken for sleep. Sehun crossed the room to feel for a pulse. On the coffee table were various drug paraphernalia and a used syringe was on the floor by Gutierrez’s hand.

     Sehun shook his head. “Damn, Well, there goes that. Guess he panicked.”

     Kyungsoo nodded but he wasn’t sure he agreed. He took a look around the apartment briefly. It looked almost exactly the same as it had last night, minus the drugs of course. But there was something staged about it.

     “He’s definitely our guy.” Sehun plucked an ID card from the coffee table with a gloved hand. It was the Met staff access badge for Juan Vargas. Kyungsoo was almost certain that it hadn’t been there last night.

     “It’s probably enough to get a full search warrant on this place. I’ll call in for CSU. Maybe see if we can dump his phone and online communication to track down the artifact if he’s already sold it.” Sehun pulled out his cell phone and began to dial.

     Kyungsoo wandered around the apartment, taking stock of everything, but careful not to touch. After a brief moment of hesitation, he pulled out his phone and texted Baekhyun.

     “Gutierrez is dead. Looks like a heroin overdose.”

     “Bullshit,” was the immediate reply.

     “No, he’s really dead. Do you want a pic?”

     “I mean bullshit on the heroin. I looked through his whole place last night, and I didn’t see any drug stuff. Besides, I didn’t smell it on him.”

     Baekhyun could smell drugs in people’s blood? Kyungsoo wondered what he could smell on him. Except he didn’t. At all. Because that would be weird.

     “Okay but I can’t exactly say I think it’s a murder because a vampire told me he can smell drug addicts.”

     “Point taken. So, do you think that creepy guy came back to finish it off? Like maybe he knew he talked or something?”

     “You really think he watching the apartment? That seems a bit excessive.”

     “I don’t know, dude, but then again, I’m not a total creeper.”

     Kyungsoo snorted. “Yeah I’m not so sure about that.”

     “Rude.”

     Thirty seconds later, he got another text.

     “Listen. I have another idea. Better to tell you in person. Can you meet me at First Park on Thursday night? Around ten?”

     “I guess so.” Might as well.

 

     It was just after 10:15 when Kyungsoo came out of the Second Avenue subway station. Baekhyun was leaning against the grate of the fence next to the park, scrolling through his phone and looking more casually stunning than anyone had a right to.

     Baekhyun’s voice jolted him from his thoughts. “And I thought the sweatpants look was bad.”

     “What?”

     “This...situation.” Baekhyun waved his hand to indicate Kyungsoo’s outfit.

     Kyungsoo looked down at his khakis and green plaid button-down and shrugged. “Whatever. I’m comfortable.”

     “My poor deluded child,” Baekhyun cooed and clapped a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder in faux solidarity.

     Baekhyun, of course, was wearing another pair of black skin tight jeans and a cream color oversized sweater that draped off his shoulder in a way that wasn’t at all sexy. He was even wearing smoked out black eyeliner. Kyungsoo fought the urge to roll his eyes. It was basically a bad vampire stereotype.

     “Did you summon me here just to insult me or what?” He hoped Baekhyun hadn’t caught him staring.

     “Right. Follow me.” Baekhyun led Kyungsoo away from the glow of the street lamps into the small park itself. Kyungsoo could barely see him in the darkness.

     “So, is this the part when you murder me?” he joked, although he couldn’t deny that he was a little nervous.

     “What? No. I’m gonna take you to meet… let’s call him a contact of mine. I think he might be able to help us out. He knows a lot about antiquities.”

     “Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

     Baekhyun ran his fingers through his hair again. The tell was so obvious.

     “He and I...we’re not exactly on the best of terms right now, I didn’t want to get him involved unless we had to, and well, now we do.”

     “Is he meeting us here then?” Kyungsoo looked around but it wasn’t like he was going to be able to see anything in the darkness.

     “No, we’re meeting him at his bar.”

     “Why are we here then?”

     Baekhyun shifted his weight from foot to foot, looking uncharacteristically hesitant. Not that Kyungsoo knew him well enough to make that kind of assessment.

     “It’s a supernatural bar, so I’m gonna have to bit you,” he finally blurted out.

     “I’m sorry.” Kyungsoo could not believe what he was hearing. “Run that by me again.”

     “Running around in a supernatural bar as an unclaimed human’s not exactly the best idea, so I need to bite you to - ”

     “To claim me? Yeah, absolutely not. No way in hell.”

     Baekhyun groaned in frustration. “Do you want to talk to him or what? It’s just one bite. It’ll be over in two minutes.”

     Kyungsoo couldn’t possibly be considering this, could he? Because this was absolute insanity. Of course everything he had done with Baekhyun thus far had been the definition of insanity, so what was one more thing?

     “Yeah, fine, okay. Just make it quick.”

     Baekhyun approached him slowly like he might a frightened animal before cautiously placing a hand on his shoulder and tipping his head to the side.

     “I’ll be gentle,” Baekhyun whispered in his ear.

     “Don’t be fucking creep - fuck!” Kyungsoo tried to pull away because ouch, Baekhyun’s stupid tiny fangs hurt like a bitch. Baekhyun held him in place easily.

     The initial pain of the bite faded quickly into a dull ache. And then Kyungsoo was acutely aware that the hottest man he’d seen in a while was sucking softly on his neck, and wow, he really hadn’t gotten laid in a while because he could feel his skin heating up and he was tilting his neck even more to give Baekhyun more room.

     “Okay, yeah, we’re done now,” Kyungsoo said as he pushed Baekhyun away. He hoped he couldn’t head how breathless his voice was.

     “Sorry.” Baekhyun had the audacity to smirk as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “A is my favorite. Just let me - ” Baekhyun wiped away the stray blood on Kyungsoo’s neck with his thumb and popped it into his mouth. “Shall we?”


	7. Chapter 7

     Baekhyun took him the two blocks a dingy looking dive bar. There was only a heavy metal door out front with no sign or windows. Baekhyun knocked and stood back as the door opened to reveal a very tall and well-built man.

     Any chance of being intimidated by him was immediately erased when the man pulled Baekhyun into a bear hug. “Baekhyun! Long time no see, dude! How are you?” The man didn’t seem to have any sense of volume control.

     “Hey, Chanyeol. This is my friend Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo, Chanyeol.”

     Chanyeol extended a giant hand and shook Kyungsoo’s in a very firm grip. “Hey, man, good to meet you.”

     “Thanks, you too,” Kyungsoo replied. He caught Chanyeol looking at the bite on his neck and he quickly threw up a hand to cover it.

     Chanyeol smirked at Baekhyun. “You moved on quick, Baek. Almost enough to make me feel bad.”

     “Suck a dick, Chanyeol.”

     Chanyeol laughed so loudly that Kyungsoo winced involuntarily. “You here to see Luhan then? You sure that’s a good idea?”

     “It’s not my fault he’s ten thousand years old and still a literal baby.”

     Chanyeol stood back to let them both in. “You better go talk to Minseok to see if Luhan’s in a good mood first. I don’t want to have to break up a catfight.”

     “Haha. Very funny, asshole.” Baekhyun dragged Kyungsoo away from Chanyeol’s chair by the door towards the bar area. Despite the rundown look of the place, the bar was exceptionally clean and organized. Baekhyun flagged down the bartender, who gave him a short nod as he greeted another patron.

     “Is Chanyeol a vampire, then?” Kyungsoo asked.

     Baekhyun snorted. “He wishes. Nah, he’s a werewolf which makes sense since he’s basically a giant puppy.”

     “And, he’s your...ex?” The comment Chanyeol made about the bite certainly suggested it.

     “We were just hooking up. It wasn’t that big,” Baekhyun said quickly. 

     The bartender approached them much to Baekhyun’s apparent relief. 

     “We didn’t think we’d seen you here again so soon, Baekhyun.” The bartender’s voice as soft but seemed to demand Kyungsoo’s attention.

     “He can’t still be mad at me.”

     “When you’re as old as he is, holding a grudge for a few weeks is basically nothing.”

     “Please. As if you aren’t just as old.”

     “Law of averages, my friend.” He turned and smiled at Kyungsoo, his catlike eyes piercing. “Are you going to introduce us to your friend?”

     “I’m Kyungsoo.” He offered his hand.

     “Minseok.”

     Baekhyun slapped Kyungsoo’s hand down before Minseok could take it. Kyungsoo shot him a look.

     “So sensitive, Baekhyun. And here we thought you could handle a bit of competition.” He turned back to Kyungsoo. “Don’t worry, darling, we wouldn’t compel you… unless you wanted us to.”

     “He’s an incubus,” Baekhyun explained, voice still tense. “Demon shit, intense lust, all that.”

     “Oh,” was all Kyungsoo could manage. He guessed it now made sense why he was so fascinated by the other man. 

     “We’re sorry. We just had to tease you, Baekhyun. That bite is just too precious. Luhan’s in the back when you’re ready to go see him.” Minseok glided away to help another patron.

     “Let’s go get this over with,” Baekhyun gritted out.

     They walked to the back of the bar to a dim corner table.

     “Luhan,” Baekhyun said.

     The man at the table looked up, revealing a cherub-like face with jet black eyes.

     “Baekhyun,” Luhan said haughtily. “Come to beg for forgiveness?”

     “Adults don’t use gutter guards, Luhan. I’m sorry you suck at bowling, okay?”

     “Are you fucking kidding me?” Their feud was over bowling? “Are all vampires this petty?”

     “Excuse you; I’m no vampire. Though I hardly expect you to understand, since you’ve allowed Baekhyun of all people to maul you.”

     Kyungsoo supposed he should feel insulted by that. “Baekhyun, just apologize so we can get what we need.”

     Baekhyun crossed his arms and looked at Luhan with disdain. But in a minute, he relented under Kyungsoo’s firm glare. “Fine. I’m sorry that I kicked your ass at bowling. Next time we can use the guards.”

     It might have been one of the least sincere apologies Kyungsoo had ever heard, but Luhan seemed to accept it nonetheless.

     “I take it this isn’t a social call,” Luhan said as they sat down. He flagged Minseok down for drinks.

     “I’m helping Kyungsoo here with his NYPD investigation, and I thought you might be able to help,” Baekhyun said.

     “An artifact was stolen from the Met, and Baekhyun though that because of your ” - Was there a nice way to call someone old?-  “experience, you could identify it for us.”

     “Minnie,” Luhan whined as Minseok approached the table with drinks. “Everyone keeps calling me old. Do I really look that old?”

     Minseok bent down to kiss Luhan on the cheek. “Of course not, darling. You look ask young and beautiful as the day we met you.” 

     “Yeah, all of five years ago,” Baekhyun muttered over the rim of his glass.

     Kyungsoo took a sip of his beer as Luhan and Minseok engaged in a kiss that was certainly not appropriate for a work environment. Minseok blew him a kiss as he sauntered back to the bar.

     “If you’re done indulging your vanity, could we get back to it? I don’t have all night,” Baekhyun interrupted. “Kyungsoo, show him the picture.”

     Kyungsoo took out his phone and scrolled through his pictures to find the one he had taken of Yixing’s binder before handing it over to Luhan.

     “Just ‘cause I’m old doesn’t mean I’ll - oh.” Luhan paused as he looked down at the image on the screen. Then he burst out laughing. “No way! They put that shit in a museum? Oh, my god, that’s too much.”

     “So you recognize it then?” Kyungsoo asked.

     “I better, seeing as I fucking made it.” Luhan leaned back against the booth seat, still staring at the picture and shaking his head. “I totally forgot all about this.”

     “Care to share with the class?” Baekhyun asked impatiently. He had already downed half his drink. 

     Luhan handed Kyungsoo back his phone. “This is a warpstone. Any faerie child can make one. It’s the first magical item any faerie learns to make, so they’re basically worthless to us.”

     “What does it do exactly? Why would someone take it?” Kyungsoo pressed.

     “So, like, faeries were created by these bros from another dimension who call themselves the Dark Masters. Fucking stupid name, but whatever. We were supposed to create chaos, so dissension, all that, and then bring the dumb spirit ghosts into this world. Only, we never actually did that. But the warpstone’s a holdover from when we used to communicate with them. It would let us cross dimensions and summon void power and shit. I don’t know. I don’t think most of us even deal with the void crap anymore. All they do is talk and frankly, it’s annoying as hell.

     “Anyhow, as to why someone would take it? Like, I have no idea. Like I said, faerie children make them ask like a coming of age ritual. They use it as a focus to cross dimensions until they’ve mature enough to not need it. It’s basically trash to any faerie over a hundred.”

     “Could a human use it? The museum curator said it was found in a human burial site.”

     “Yeah, about that.” Luhan laughed quietly to himself. “I may have made a whole bunch and sold them to humans along with some hallucinogenic drugs to make them think they could access the spirit world. A couple faeries let it slip it was possible - maybe it was me, maybe it wasn’t; it was a long time ago. Humans can’t use it at all, but you know humans.” Luhan winked at Kyungsoo. “They never want to just leave well enough alone. In all honesty, your thief probably just grabbed something random and called it a day.”

     But nothing about the theft struck Kyungsoo as random. Every detail had been perfectly planned by the buyer, and Gutierrez had had very specific instruction about what he was supposed to take. “You said faerie children used it to channel their power, right? So what if whoever took it needed to do the same thing, like a really weak faerie or something?” Kyungsoo suggested. “Or maybe a half-faerie?”

     Luhan seemed to contemplate that. “I mean, I guess it’s technically possible, but still out there. Faeries live by feeding off of the energy of everything around us, but half-faeries can’t quite manage it, even though they need that energy to survive. A faerie with a human mother will kill her before he’s even born, and even if he had a faerie mother who could survive the drain, he would probably die during childhood because he’s only be able to feed off himself. It’s why we try to avoid mating with humans.”

     Kyungsoo thought of Gutierrez’s description of the buy, how sickly and frail he said that he appeared. “But if one were able to live until adulthood, could he use a warpstone?”

     “Yeah, he could use it as a sort of a crude focus for some of his latent powers, energy draining, dimension travel, that stuff.”

     “Crude,” Kyungsoo pondered. “So, if he tried to to take energy from someone he’d have no real control.” 

     “Oh, yeah. He’d definitely kill them. Sapping small amounts takes restraint and control that only comes with time. Draining like that isn’t a long term plan though. The warpstone isn’t delicate and it works both ways: takes too much from the victim, gives to little to the user. He could make it more effective with the help of a full faerie, but we typically scorn half-breeds. Be more likely to kill him than anything else.”

     “What about the Dark Masters?” Baekhyun asked. He had been so quiet that Kyungsoo had forgotten he was even there. He felt bad for assuming he hadn’t been listening. “You said the warpstone could be used to cross to their realm. Would they help?”

     “Ugh, probably. I’m sure they’d be overjoyed to have someone to do their pompous and lameass bidding on this side of the fence. If he’s trying to cross over, he’s gonna need the leylines. He wouldn’t have enough power to travel without then, even with the warpstone.”

     “Leylines?” Kyungsoo asked.

     “Currents of magical energy,” Baekhyun explained. “There’s tons in the city, and sometimes they make things go fucky. Why do you think it took the second avenue subway line so long to get built?”

     “Leylines are more powerful when they converge,” Luhan said. “He’s likely using a convergence point to cross over.”

     “Do you know where the strongest ones are? We could start looking there.”

     “Do I look like I care enough to memorize that shit? Just google it.” Luhan leaned forward across the table. “Now, unless you have any more questions, it’s time to settle up.”

     Kyungsoo looked over to Baekhyun, totally confused. Baekhyun was glaring at Luhan.

     “I’d be happy to accept payment from either one of you - ”

     Before Luhan could finish his sentence, Baekhyun bit down hard onto his own wrist. “Here,” he said as he shoved it in Luhan’s face. “And I’ll makes sure Minseok gets two pints by next week.”

     “It’s a deal.” The look on Luhan’s face was positively gleeful as he took Baekhyun’s wrist and started to drink from it.

     After a minute, Baekhyun tore his arm away. “That’s enough of that.”

     Luhan looked dazed, his already black pupils blown so wide they took over his entire eye. He leaned back against the bench with a bemused smile.

     “Come on, Kyungsoo, let’s get out of here.” Kyungsoo heard him mutter “fucking faeries” as he dragged him out of the bar.

     “Vampire blood is basically ecstasy to most supernatural creatures. Does shit all for humans though. Lots of supernatural bars have some blood on stock to spike drinks. It makes dating over supernaturals hard ‘cause you don’t know if they want you or a high,” Baekhyun explained. As much as he tried to pretend it didn’t bother him, his jaw was too tight for it to feel casual. 

     “Is that what happened with Chanyeol?” Kyungsoo asked as gently as he could.

     The tension around Baekhyun seemed to dissipate immediately. “Oh, definitely not. Unfortunately, as gorgeous as he is, we just weren’t compatible long term. Werewolves really hate to bottom.” 

     And wow, that was really a thought Kyungsoo didn’t need slamming into him - tall, muscular Chanyeol with his long legs wrapped around Baekhyun. Baekhyun who seemed so delicate and small, but was so fucking strong and passionate and - 

     “Good night, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun sauntered off like he could read Kyungsoo’s mind, making damn sure that Kyungsoo could see his ass in his skinny jeans as he did so. 

     And now he had a boner. Fucking great.


	8. Chapter 8

     There was someone else in Kyungsoo’s apartment. It was pitch dark, and the stillness of his room felt unnatural. It was rare for there to be no ambient street noise, even on his quiet Upper West Side block. A part of him thought that he thought he was imagining things. He rolled onto his stomach and tried to fall asleep again.

     Then he felt a breath on his neck. “I know you wanted me tonight, Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun’s hands were smoothing down his back and over the curve of his ass. “You like my hands, don’t you? I like it when you stare at them when you think I’m not looking.”

     Baekhyun’s voice was deep and sultry in a way Kyungsoo had never heard it before. He was pushing down Kyungsoo’s boxers and exploring every inch of his ass.

     Baekhyun slipped one long finger inside him, and Kyungsoo realized he was already lubed and stretched. That didn’t make much sense. It felt too good to question it, however. Soon, Baekhyun was sliding three fingers in and out as Kyungsoo moaned and writhed. He kept whispering the filthiest things Kyungsoo had ever heard, but couldn’t remember anything he was saying. He only knew that he was going to come, and it was going to be spectacular.

 

     He woke up with dried come in his boxers and definitely no lube in his ass. The bite mark on his neck itched. Stupid vampire shit make him have sex dreams about Baekhyun. Because that had to be what it was.

     As if to make matters worse, he woke up to a text from Baekhyun. “Hope you slept well last night.” Did he know about the dream? He better not have been making it happen? “I think we should stakeout the leyline convergence tonight. I looked online and one of the strongest is in Murray Hill. Did you know witches have websites? I’ll pick you up at eleven.”

     Kyungsoo had the sneaking suspicion that Baekhyun was going to force him to go whether he agreed or not.

 

     Baekhyun was punctual, at least; Kyungsoo would give him that. He texted him to meet him outside at precisely eleven. Kyungsoo had changed out of his work clothes into comfortable sweatpants and sneakers and had filled a duffle bag with snacks. He’d been on a few stakeouts before and wasn’t planning to go in unprepared. 

     “What’s in the bag?” Baekhyun asked.

     “Snacks - protein bars mostly.”

     “Shit. I didn’t bring any snacks. Or, wait...maybe I did.” Baekhyun bit his bottom lip and looked Kyungsoo up and down.

     Kyungsoo felt himself flush. “Don’t be gross.”

     They parked the car as inconspicuously as one could park a car big as Baekhyun’s.

     “So the convergence is right there in the middle of the street. I figure anyone chilling in the road is probably our guy.” Baekhyun indicated the intersection right in front of them.

     “Okay. And remember that this is strictly for information. Don’t go running off doing something stupid when we don’t know what he’s capable of.”

     “That doesn’t sound like something I’d do.”

     Forty minutes later, Baekhyun was nearly upside-down in the driver’s seat, his legs stretched out over the middle console into the backseat. “Kyungsoo, I’m bored. Stakeouts seem way more fun in the movies.”

     “Yeah, ‘cause movies are so accurate. It’s not supposed to be fun. It’s a job.”

     “Ugh. This is not comfortable,” he whined. He flipped himself around so that he was right side up again, nearly hitting the horn in the process.

     “Yeah, well, that’s why you don’t wear leather pants to a stakeout.”

     “Maybe I just wanted you to check out my ass again.”

     Oh shit, did he know? Kyungsoo tried to keep his face completely neutral. “Keep telling yourself that.” Baekhyun really did have a nice ass though. He had a nice everything - at least as far as his dreaming mind was concerned.

     Well, if they were gonna be stuck here for a while, he might as well ask.

     “When does it wear off? This effects of the bite?”

     “The scarring should fade in a week or two. It’s just like any other wound.” Baekhyun shrugged. Was he being deliberately dense?

     “No, I mean the other side effects. The...dreams and shit.” Kyungsoo looked pointedly out the window, determined to avoid Baekhyun’s gaze.

     “Dreams?” He asked, sounding perplexed, until - “Oh my god, you’ve been having dreams about me! How was I?”

     Kyungsoo was about ready to punch him. “Shut up.”

     “Wow! That good, huh?”

     Baekhyun was practically giddy. Kyungsoo was decidedly less enthused.

     “When does this shit wear off? You didn’t tell me the bite does this freaky dream control, too.”

     “That’s ‘cause it doesn’t. This is all on you, buddy.” Baekhyun was full on laughing at him now. “You want me so baaaaaad.”

     There was no way Kyungsoo was about to sit in the car while Baekhyun was like this. “I’m getting coffee,” he gritted out.

     He was in a shitty mood when he walked into the bodega across the street and he wasn’t sure if he was annoyed at Baekhyun for teasing him or at himself for well, what exactly? Being attracted to Baekhyun in the first place? Or for so adamantly denying it? It wasn’t like Baekhyun seemed uninterested. But Kyungsoo continued to cling to the maybe idiotic idea that casual flings with clearly short-term guys were not for responsible people like him. Then again, nothing he’d done this week had been even close to responsible, and the world hadn’t ended. Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing to want something fun for himself.

     Kyungsoo looked around the store as he filled his coffee cup at the dispenser. Besides the cashier, there was only one other person in the bodega: a tall man, nondescript in almost every way save for his clearly designer wool coat. He noticed Kyungsoo staring at him, but before Kyungsoo could politely look away, the man was walking toward him with purpose. As he crossed the small store, Kyungsoo saw what was clearly a stone in his left hand.

     Kyungsoo knocked over the coffee display to try to buy himself the time to get away, but the man sidestepped the fallen carafe and lunged at Kyungsoo. He slid on the spilled coffee and brought his full weight down on the Kyungsoo, knocking him to the floor. Kyungsoo kicked up instinctively, kneeing the man in the stomach. He rolled to the side as the man attempted to punch him in the face, quick enough to avoid the full force of the blow, but not fast enough to avoid a glancing hit to the side of the head. The force of it blurred his vision, and the other man recovered faster. He saw the man raise the stone and begin to focus it at Kyungsoo. He hoped Baekhyun didn’t come looking for him. No sense in him dying, too. 

     A beam of light emerged from the warpstone and hit him square in the chest and everything went dark.


	9. Chapter 9

     Kyungsoo groaned in pain as he awoke. But pain was a good thing, as that meant he probably wasn't dead. The fact that everything around him was weirdly dark and out of focus - probably not such a good thing.

     The man in the wool coat didn’t seem to realize that he was awak. He was shouting, but there wasn’t anyone Kyungsoo could see that he was talking to.

     “This one is not suitable,” a deep voice both echoed inside his mind and filled the air around him.

     “Not suitable?!” The man raved. “The drains are not enough. I’m getting weaker. You told me you would help. Masters, please! Accept the sacrifice I bring you!”

     “This one bears the mark of the tainted, therefore, he is tainted. To bring him into out realm is to taint it as well.”

     The mark of the tainted? Were they referring to Baekhyun’s bite mark? There were more important things to worry about at the moment. The pain in his head was fading, which made him aware of the growing pain in his ankle. He had likely twisted it when he fell in the bodega. The only way he might be able to get away was if he gave himself a head start. He reached his hand out as stealthily as he could, knowing surprise was his only advantage. They brushed against something hard, a small jagged rock. Kyungsoo clutched it tightly.

     “We will have no part in this,” the bizarre disembodied voice was saying. “We will continue this conversation after you’ve seen to your mistake.”

     The man grumbled and turned to Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo held himself completely rigid; he’d only have one shot at getting the timing right. The man fumbled for something in his pocket and knelt down over Kyungsoo. As quickly as he could, Kyungsoo rolled over and brought the rock down hard on the man’s head. Then he scrambled to his feet and ran.

 

     He was absolutely fucked. Sure, he had gotten a head start, but a head start to where, exactly? His ankle was throbbing with each step he took, but he knew he couldn’t stop running. He was at a severe disadvantage; he had no idea where he was going or even where he should go. Was it even possible for him to travel back to his own dimension, or would be stuck here until he either died or was caught and killed?

     Everything around him appeared as though it was shifting through a thick fog. He forced himself to stop and take stock of his surroundings. It both was and wasn’t New York. The streets and buildings were the same, but they stretched on for miles, only to snap into place as Kyungsoo approached. The street signs flicked in and out of existence, making it impossible for him to read.

     The only way he was going to get out of here was if he could either get the warpstone from his captor, or find a way to communicate with someone on the other side. He honestly had no hope of taking the warpstone, much less with an injury. Besides, even if he found the stone and made it back to the leyline convergence, it wasn’t like he had the ability to cross over. The only thing he could possibly think to do was try to contact Luhan. If he could find Luhan’s bar in this facsimile of New York, maybe his proximity to the faerie would allow Luhan to sense him. Whether or not he could bring him back was another story, but it was the best plan he could come up with, considering the circumstances.

     The bar wasn’t far from where he appeared to be. It had to be the corner of Bowery and Houston - that building was definitely the Whole Foods - so he started running east. He had no way of knowing if the man was able to track him, so he refused to slow no matter how much his ankle protested. He limped past Avenue A. He was so close - 

     He ran into something solid. Something that grabbed his arms before he could fall. And this had to be it. He was going to die and - 

     “Fuck, you’re not dead!”

     Kyungsoo’s eyes snapped up to the man holding on to him. Baekhyun looked a fucking mess, paler than Kyungsoo had ever seen, blood matted on his sleeves all the way up to the elbows, but he was smiling like the sun and gripping Kyungsoo’s arms like his life depended on it.

     “How - ” Kyungsoo was too stunned to even formulate a whole question.

     “I heard the fight go down, but you were gone before I could get there to help. So I went to Luhan and begged him to try to send me over.”

     “Why? I mean, I could have been dead for all you know.” Kyungsoo thought to the bite on his neck. “Was it because you bit me? Like you can sense me now?”

     “Oh, no, it doesn’t work like that. Honestly, I just really hoped you weren’t dead.” He shrugged and almost looked like he could be blushing. It was too foggy to tell. “You’re not the worst company.”

     “Wow, how sweet,” Kyungsoo said sarcastically. But he felt himself gripping Baekhyun just as tightly as the vampire held him. “You look like shit by the way.”

     “I come to your rescue, and you insult me? That’s not very gracious,” Baekhyun quipped. “Luhan needed my blood - a lot of it. Said he could only send me over if he had absorbed enough of my energy to make us similar enough to trick the magic or something. I don’t know if he just wanted to get high or what, but here I am.”

     “Okay, great!” Kyungsoo pulled away from Baekhyun and started to drag him toward the bar. “We can get out of here now.”

     “Yeah…” Baekhyun started hesitantly. “Luhan only had enough power to send me like that one way. He said we’d need the warpstone for him to have any chance of pulling us both out. And even then...it’s a long shot.”

     “So, you crossed dimensions not knowing if you’d be able to come back?” Something clenched in Kyungsoo’s chest and he tried not to think about why that might be. “You’re an idiot.” It came out far fonder than he had meant it to.

     “That’s me.” Baekhyun smiled, but it was too weak. His wrists were still dripping blood onto the sidewalk. There was no way they had any chance of getting the warpstone like this.

     “You should drink from me,” Kyungsoo blurted out.

     “What?”

     “You’re weak from the blood loss, right? And if you drank, you’d be stronger again? Heal?”

     Baekhyun bit his lower lip, thinking hard. “Sure. But, Kyungsoo, if I take what I need, you’re gonna be too drained to fight back. You’d be totally vulnerable. I can’t - ”

     “Look,” Kyungsoo interrupted. “One of us had to fight that crazy fucker, right? We have to get the stone from him or we’re stuck here forever. You have a much better shot at it than me, but only if you’re at full strength.” He stuck his wrist in Baekhyun’s face. “So just do it.”

     “Okay,” Baekhyun reached up to hold this wrist steady, grip loose and gentle. “Yeah, okay.”

     Kyungsoo expected the pain as Baekhyun bit down, and the small spike of arousal of having someone he was clearly attracted to - no sense in denying that anymore - mouth at such a sensitive area, but Baekhyun was taking far more blood far quicker than he had the last time. The world started to spin around him, and it was all he could do to stay on his feet.

     When Baekhyun pulled away, the difference in his complexion was immediately apparent. His skin was practically glowing and the wounds on his wrists had completely disappeared. Without a word, he hoisted Kyungsoo into his arms and started carrying him toward the bar as though he weighed nothing. Kyungsoo would have protested at the treatment but he was fairly certain that he wouldn’t be able to walk on his own at the moment. Besides, it did feel sort of nice.

     He faded in and out of awareness as they walked, only coming fully back to himself as Baekhyun gingerly settled him down on one of the bar’s benches.

     “Now we wait, I suppose,” Baekhyun said, positioning himself to face the door and block Kyungsoo from its view.

     “The Masters said I was tainted,” Kyungsoo slurred. “Wasn’t a good sacrifice. They don’t like vampire shit. Maybe it’ll make help him find us faster.”

     Baekhyun may have responded, but Kyungsoo didn’t hear what he said. He drifted off to sleep with the singular knowledge that Baekhyun would protect him. That should not have made him feel as safe as it did.

     A loud crash jolted Kyungsoo from sleep. Baekhyun had thrown a table clear across the room as the murderer lunged for him. The man narrowly avoided it, reflexes quicker than a normal human could have. For all of his abilities, it was clear that he was outmatched. Baekhyun was at full strength. He grabbed him by the leg as he dodged to the left and dragged the man toward him. The man cradled the stone to his chest, struggling to protect it from Baekhyun’s questing hands.

     “Masters, please!” he cried.

     The room seemed to suck inward, parts of it fading in and out of existence so quickly that Kyungsoo couldn’t keep track of it all. Then it exploded in a flash of blinding light, and Baekhyun was being thrown back against the bar.

     “Are you fucking kidding me?” he yelled.

     It was clear the man was much stronger now, possible even stronger than Baekhyun. But Baekhyun fought like a wild animal, all ferocity and no finesse. He flung himself at the man, blindly grabbing and scratching. The man flipped them over and wrapped a hand around Baekhyun’s thoat. Bad move against a vampire. Baekhyun laughed and kneed his attacker in the groin. The was no way he could keep up this pace for long though. Baekhyun was going to lose, and there wasn’t anything Kyungsoo could do about it. He was now strong enough to stand, but not enough to join the fight. Baekhyun’s bite had left him so weak.

     The bite!

     “Baekhyun!” he shouted. “You have to bite him!”

     “Now’s not really the time for tips,” Baekhyun grunted, avoiding a finger jab to his eye.

     “No, the Masters think the bite is tainted!”

     Realization dawned on Baekhyun’s face and he grabbed the man’s arm as he came down with another blow. Using all of his remaining strength, he held it in place and sunk his teeth into the other man’s flesh.

     The reaction was almost instantaneous. The man was no longer able to even budge in Baekhyun’s grip. Baekhyun pinned him easily, and Kyungsoo rushed forward to grab the warpstone the man still clutched in his hand.

     “Wait. Did we do it?” Baekhyun asked in disbelief. “Holy shit, we did it!”

     Kyungsoo couldn’t believe it either. “So, um, what now?”

     “Oh, right.” Baekhyun reached out with one hand, holding the struggling man down with the other. Kyungsoo gave him the warpstone, and Baekhyun spit some blood from his split lip onto the rock.

     “Gross.”

     “Effective. Now we just wai - ”


	10. Chapter 10

     The three of them landed on the floor of the bar with a thud. Minseok was holding up an exhausted Luhan, stroking his hair as the faerie groaned softly.

     “Well, fuck,” Luhan muttered. “I didn’t think that would work.”

     “How in the hell…?” A familiar voice said. Sehun was standing to their left, completely dumbstruck. He shook his head. “You know. I don’t even want to know.”

     “Sehun?” Kyungsoo stumbled to his feet, aided by Chanyeol. “What are you doing here? Are we actually dead?”

     “You texted me to meet you here. You said it was urgent.”

     “Oh, yeah, sorry dude. I stole your phone. You really shouldn’t leave it lying around,” Baekhyun said. He had hauled the man to his feet and had both of his arms pinned behind his back. “He’s all yours, detective.”

     As Sehun began reading the man his rights, the man spit in his face. 

     “Charming,” Sehun grimaced. 

     Chanyeol rushed behind the bar to hand Sehun a cloth.

     “You want to take him in?” Sehun asked. “It’s your collar.”

     “Would you mind doing it?” Kyungsoo asked. “I’m dead on my feet.”

     “Hmm…” Sehun pretended to deliberate. “I suppose I could. If you get me his number.” He looked Chanyeol up and down.

     “Sehun,” Kyungsoo groaned.

     “Relax. I’m just kidding.”

     “Oh,” Chanyeol said, quickly crunching up a napkin in his hand.

     Sehun snatched the napkin before he could hide it away.

     A few minutes later, the man was handcuffed and properly Mirandized, and Sehun walked him his squad car parked on the street. The bar fell quiet.

     “So,” Baekhyun said warily, “what do I owe you?”

     Luhan’s eyes were closed, his head tilted back against Minseok’s shoulder. “Mmmm. I did this out of the goodness of my heart.”

     “I highly doubt that.”

     “Fair enough. But I got to fuck with those spirit assholes, so that’s a pretty good day in my book. Now, get out of my bad. I need to sleep.”

 

     The drive back to Kyungsoo’s apartment was mostly silent, but the car thrummed with a palpable energy. The adrenaline from the evening was wearing off, but instead of making him more tired, he felt almost giddy. Baekhyun looked over and caught his eye, and Kyungsoo giggled before he could stop himself.

     “Drinks?” he asked as Baekhyun parked outside of the apartment.

     “Sure.”

     Kyungsoo pulled out a bottle of whiskey from his cabinet and took a generous swig before handing the battle to Baekhyun. He kicked off his sneakers and collapsed onto the couch. Baekhyun jumped over the back of the couch to join him, taking another drink as he did so.

     “Fuck, dude. How are we even alive?” Baekhyun passed the bottle over. He was laughing, his eyes scrunched closed. He was still covered in dried blood and his hair was in shambles, but Kyungsoo wanted him more than anything he could think of.

     And, really, why shouldn’t he? He had just spent a week chasing a vampire all over town, traveling dimensions and almost dying. Hooking up with Baekhyun would probably be the sanest thing he done.

     Before he could talk himself out of it, he put the bottle of whiskey down on the coffee table and climbed straight into Baekhyun’s lap.

     “Fucking finally,” Baekhyun said. And then he kissed him.

     Baekhyun was a fucking amazing kisser. Kyungsoo honestly couldn’t find it in him to be surprised. He scraped his fangs lightly over Kyungsoo’s bottom lip, the sting of it oddly arousing. He licked his tongue over the tiny droplets of blood his fangs had drawn.

     Baekhyun flipped them over so that Kyungsoo was sprawled on his back under him, kissing him deeply. His hand slid down Kyungsoo’s body to grasp his hip tightly and pull their bodies close together. One of Kyungsoo’s hands came to rest on Baekhyun’s chest. Holy shit, he had nice pecs. Kyungsoo reached down to pull at the bottom hem of Baekhyun’s t-shirt but was making little headway. He wanted this off about ten minutes ago. Baekhyun laughed lightly, but pulled back to yank off his shirt before returning to kiss him within an inch of his life.

     Fuck, he was so hot. Like, of course Baekhyun would have perfect abs. He already had perfect everything else. Baekhyun moved to kiss a line down Kyungsoo’s neck, adding just a tiny amount of maddening pressure with his fangs. Kyungsoo squirmed underneath him, the change in position allowing him to rub himself up against Baekhyun’s thigh. He was so hard, he was pretty sure he’d die if Baekhyun stopped.

     “Fuck, Baekhyun, fuck,” he gasped out, trying to pull him even closer. “You’d better fuck me after this.”

     “So demanding,” Baekhyun practically purred. And then suddenly his weight lifted off Kyungsoo, and he was sitting up, not kissing him, which was absolutely not okay.

     “What the hell, dude?” Kyungsoo tried to sit up too, but found he was being held down by one of Baekhyun’s hands on his chest. He struggled but it was no use, and wow, that should not be as hot as it was.

     “First, you have to tell me you like me,” Baekhyun said. He was fucking smirking again.

     “What?” This was so stupid. Why wasn’t Baekhyun fucking him already. “Baekhyun,” he whined, baring his throat and trying to look as enticing as possible.

     “I just want you to admit it. You totally like me.”

     “Why do I have to admit it? You haven’t.”

     “Um, daring rescue to a void dimension? If that’s not an ‘I like you’, I don’t know what is.”

     Okay, he had a point with that. And, to be fair, Kyungsoo did like Baekhyun, maybe even as more than just a hookup. A little adventure might be good for him. 

     “Fine. I guess I like you or whatever,” he mumbled. 

     “Oh come on. You can do better than that.”

     “I fucking like you, and I really need you to fuck me. Is that good enough?”

    In answer, Baekhyun lifted him off the couch and started carrying him to the bedroom.

     “I can walk, you know,” Kyungsoo huffed.

     “Can you?” And that was true. His ankle was still killing him. “Besides, you like this better.”

     Kyungsoo crawled across the bed to his night stand as soon as Baekhyun put him down. He grabbed the bottle of lube from the top and fished around the drawer for a condom. His search was hampered by Baekhyun pulling down the waistband of his pants and boxers and groping at his ass. Kyungsoo shivered from how good it felt.

     “Your ass is so fucking gorgeous.” Baekhyun kneaded it, spreading his fingers out to grab as much as he could.

     “Well, if you give me a second.” There! He found a condom stuck in the back. He shoved the condom and lube at Baekhyun before kicking off his pants entirely and pulling his shirt over head head. Baekhyun was looking at him like he wanted to eat him alive, which, you know, he probably did. Kyungsoo turned over to get on all fours again. “Come on,” he urged, wiggling his ass.

     Baekhyun didn’t waste any time. Kyungsoo heard the sound of the lube being squeezed out before he felt a finger smoothing it over his hole.

     “Are you gonna tease me, or - ” Kyungsoo was too breathless to continue. Baekhyun’s finger felt amazing just rubbing him, but something made him want to be bratty. Maybe Baekhyun was literally driving him insane.

     When Baekhyun finally slipped his finger inside, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but moan. His fingers were so long, reaching places he’d never been able to on his own. His only regret was that he wasn’t able to see Baekhyun’s hands working him open. Those beautiful fingers sinking into him and making him feel more alive than even escaping death had.

     Despite Kyungsoo’s impatience, he was glad that Baekhyun opened him up slowly and thoroughly. He found Kyungsoo’s prostate almost immediately, the bastard, and seemed to delight in taking him by surprise: occasionally brushing it so softly that Kyungsoo could barely feel it, and others, rubbing it firmly and making him push back against him for more.

     “You like that, baby?” Baekhyun asked as he pumped three fingers steadily. “You like like my fingers fucking your pretty ass so good?”

     “Don’t be gross,” Kyungsoo tried to snap back, but his moaning was undermining any heat his admonishment may have had. “You can fuck me any time now, you know.” He was beyond ready.

     Baekhyun’s fingers pulled from his ass with an audible squelch, and it spoke to just how turned on he was that the noise didn’t bother him in the slightest. He turned onto his back to watch as Baekhyun took off his pants. And, like, of course he’d have the prettiest dick Kyungsoo had ever seen. Just on the bigger size of average with a soft dusky pink head. He found himself hoping they would hook up again so that he would have the chance to get it in his mouth.

     Baekhyun lubed himself up quickly and efficiently put on the condom, but instead of pressing into Kyungsoo, he leaned down to kiss him once again. It was a simple gesture that shouldn’t have made Kyungsoo smile like an idiot.

     “I have an idea,” Baekhyun murmured against his lips. “I think you’ll like it.”

     “Okay, Kyungsoo said. He was so hard that he was leaking against his stomach. Honestly, he’d agree to anything that would get him fucked.

     Baekhyun pulled Kyungsoo gently by the legs to the edge of the bed, and Kyungsoo instinctively wrapped them around Baekhyun’s waist. Then, Baekhyun was lifting Kyungsoo off of the bed and carrying him over to press him against the wall.

     “Fucking show off,” Kyungsoo said, but goddamn if this wasn’t the hottest thing that had ever happened to him.

     Baekhyun just smirked and shifted Kyungsoo’s weight so that he was holding him with only one arm. He positioned his dick against Kyungsoo’s entrance. Kyungsoo let himself slowly sink down, trusting Baekhyun to hold him. He had always wanted to be fucked like this, and Baekhyun was probably one of the only people strong enough to do it.

     Baekhyun held him firmly against the wall and used the leverage to help him fuck Kyungsoo slow and deep. He had forgotten how incredible it felt to be filled so well, to have every thrust push him further and further from rational thought until all he could comprehend was pleasure and the desperate need to come. Baekhyun’s mouth hung open, little huffed gasps falling from his lips each time he pushed back in. His arms flexed gloriously as he held Kyungsoo up by his thighs.

     Kyungsoo couldn’t wait any longer; one of his hands moving from its place around Baekhyun’s neck to grasp his cock. He didn’t bother trying to to tease himself or draw it out. He pumped hard and fast with only one purpose in mind.

     “That’s it, baby,” Baekhyun moaned. His angle was perfection, and Kyungsoo knew he wouldn’t last. Not with Baekhyun looking at him like Kyungsoo’s pleasure was the most fascinating thing in the world. “Just like that. Come on my cock, baby.”

     “Shut u - ” Kyungsoo’s words were transformed into a high-pitched whine that he would later deny making as Baekhyun slammed into his prostate one final time and he came all over his stomach. It was probably the strongest orgasm he’d ever had, and being able to fall fully limp in Baekhyun’s firm hold made it even better.

     “Fuck,” Baekhyun was saying, but it sounded like it was coming from far away. Kyungsoo smiled up at him lazily. Baekhyun’s eyes were nearly all pupil. He was so beautiful; Kyungsoo wouldn’t mind looking at him forever.

     Baekhyun deposited him gently onto his back on the bed. Kyungsoo kept his legs wrapped around his waist so that he could keep Baekhyun inside. He pushed himself back further onto Baekhyun’s cock, and Baekhyun let out a gorgeous moan.

     “You don’t mind?” Baekhyun asked.

     “Please.”

     Baekhyun fucked him until he was shaking. He couldn’t seem to stop talking, but now that he had come, Kyungsoo didn’t have the energy to be annoyed by it. Besides it was kind of nice to be told how beautiful he was and how amazing his ass felt. Only when he came was he completely silent, eyes closed, breathing harshly through his mouth.

     “Fuck, that was good,” Baekhyun murmured after he had recovered. He had moved so that he was laying on his back next to Kyungsoo on the bed.

     Kyungsoo hummed in agreement. Without any sexual tension to keep him awake, it was hitting him just how exhausted he really was. “We should shower.”

     “Yeah, we’re nasty.”

     “We should definitely shower right now.” His eyes were already closed though. He was gonna hate himself for not cleaning up in the morning.

     “We should do this again,” Baekhyun said suddenly.

     “What? The sex or the crime-solving?” Kyungsoo joked.

     “Why not both?”


	11. Chapter 11

     The half-faerie was eventually identified as a Colin McCallum, a former contract litigator who had quit his job and dropped off of the grid eight months earlier. He had confessed almost immediately, screaming about how the warpstone was his birthright and how the two men he had killed were necessary sacrifices for his destiny. Though there would never be enough evidence to take the murder cases to trial, it turned out that Gutierrez had kept good enough records that between those and Kyungsoo’s testimony, they could proceed on the robbery case.

     The past few weeks had seen Kyungsoo finally having his ankle brace removed and getting off of desk duty. Yixing had was very happy to have the warpstone returned. He was even happier to have it returned by “antiquities expert” Luhan. Captain Wu had given Kyungsoo an awkward pat on the back and told him “he was proud of him, son”. Kyungsoo was pretty sure that Wu wasn’t even ten years older than him, but he’d take it. He’d also bought enough blackout curtains to cover every window in his apartment.

 

     “A psychic? Really?” Baekhyun asked as Kyungsoo held to precinct door open for him.

     “Well, I told Captain Wu that I had a confidential informant and this was the best explanation I could think of. It’s not like I could just say ‘vampire’.”

     “How very USA network of you.”

     “I’m surprised you didn’t go with The Mentalist.”

     “Please. I’m a vampire, not a monster.”

     Captain Wu was waiting for them in his office.

     “Byun Baekhyun, psychic extraordinaire.” He bowed with a dramatic hand flourish.

     Kyungsoo rolled his eyes.

     “Right…” Captain Wu eyed him skeptically. “I don’t normally hold with all that supernatural mumbo jumbo, but One PP is thrilled with your results, so as long as you fill out all the right paperwork, it’s fine by me.”

     “Thank you, sir,” Kyungsoo said. “You won’t regret it.” At least he hoped he wouldn’t.

 

     “So does this mean I get a badge?” Baekhyun asked as they left the station, paperwork stamped and signed.

     “No.”

     “A gun?”

     “Yeah, definitely not.”

     “This is gonna be so boring.”

     Kyungsoo was pretty sure it was going to be anything but. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you once again for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it!


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